Why Sharing Your Christian Testimony is Good for You [Guest Post]

Jesus told us to witness to the ends of the earth, but how many of us are doing that, even though we accept that we should be?

It’s not easy when we live in a secular world, where talking about Jesus may meet with derision.

Evangelizing may not be our bag. We couldn’t begin to quote appropriate Bible verses off the cuff or spout theology.

Our alternative, if we want to try to oblige Jesus, is to tell our own story. A story about something that happened to us is powerful and difficult to gainsay. And the telling of it probably won’t wind up in a fist fight.

Yes, I know. The idea of witnessing about what Jesus has done for us as individuals is cringe-making. This is because, inevitably, all our stories contain a less than shiny ‘before’ stage, the one from which Jesus picked us up and dusted us off. (Jesus has rescued us all from trouble. If you think He never has, either you’ve led a charmed life or you’re not giving Him the credit He deserves.)

Spread the Love

Another good reason for wading in to tell someone your Jesus story is that it’s plain callous and selfish not to. If there was a fire, you wouldn’t run to safety and leave everyone else in the building in ignorance, would you?

Having found eternal life, you can’t stand around, smugly looking down on the other poor blighters who haven’t. You owe it to help ease the scales from the eyes of those who don’t get it yet.

Here’s How

Your first step to sharing what Jesus has done for you is to pick one episode from your walk with God. I say one because nobody, outside of your church home group, will be prepared to listen to you droning on about your Christian life from age five.

It helps to get your story straight before you share it, without o, ums and ahs, or going back to fill in the important bit you forgot.

It’s good to kick off your story at an impactful place, relevant to the episode you’re about to share.

If you write it down, the parts that are waffle become more obvious and you can edit out anything superfluous.

Here’s What You Get Out of All This

The writing process is meditational. You’ll find yourself in a dialogue with God, which is exactly what He wants.

It’s uplifting and inspirational for you.

In the two years I’ve been teaching people how to share their Christian testimony, I’ve noticed that revisiting what God has done for us enhances our faith. We wonder anew at God’s grace.

My FREE workbook, Start Writing Your Christian Testimony, will help you get your ideas straight. See below for the link.

In a class of testimony sharers, hearing others’ stories also shines a light on the huge diversity of what God does in our lives. Also, the way others react to what God did for you will make you feel you’re His favorite, (as, of course, we all are).

You could gather together with fellow Christians to hone your stories as a group and inspire one another, by sharing them at a reading, as a play, video presentation, anthology or Facebook page.

You’ll find you feel so good about sharing your story, you’ll look forward to doing it, again and again.

Question: Who in your circles would you like to see brought to faith and why?

Bobbie Ann Cole is passionate about Jesus and the diversity of what He does in our lives. She’s a wife, mother and grandmother, a writer and teacher of creative writing.

Her FREE ‘Start Writing Your Christian Testimony’ workbook is available at http://testimonytrain.com. She posts a weekly testimony share and would happily consider an episode from your walk with Jesus for inclusion.

‘She Does Not Fear the Snow’, her personal faith journey, begins in a Jerusalem church where, as a Jew, she thought she wasn’t supposed to be. God lays a trail of miracles that lead her from broken to a new husband of faith, her Boaz. The Kindle version has made No. 1 in Amazon’s freebie charts for Biographies and Memoirs of Women and Messianic Judaism (Jews who believe in Jesus). It is also available in print: http://amzn.to/18ljFPZ .